Life of a Shinobi
by Ice Cream Dreams
Summary: In the event of their her death, Kushina left a scroll for Naruto containing her last words and techniques from both her and Minato. The Sandaime gives Naruto this scroll after he fails the Genin Graduation Exam for a second time. How will this scroll make Naruto grow into a strong Shinobi? Please Read and Review.
1. Chapter 1

A 9 year-old Naruto sullenly sat in the Hokage's office, finding more interest in his shoes rather than his surrogate grandfather. He had failed his genin exam for the second time, it was a much better showing than his first try, but he still failed to create even a single Bunshin. Again, he tried to pass early, but only managed to humiliate himself. In his depression, he found himself aimlessly wandering to the Sandaime's office, hoping to at least guilt trip the Old man into some Ramen. Unfortunately, the Hokage was currently behind a stack of paperwork, and couldn't spare Naruto any attention. Hiruzen was halfway through a large pile of papers when he stopped, and leveled his eyes to Naruto. With a sigh, he relented to his conscience and retrieved a scroll from his drawer.

"Naruto, I know you failed the Genin Exam, and am disappointed that you didn't wait for at least a few years to graduate, but I have got to commend you on your enthusiasm." Sandaime extended the scroll to Naruto. "So, I have a present for you, it's from your parents, I think you'll find it, interesting."

Naruto's eyes widened into saucers, and started to brim with tears. His parents. He could barely even process the information as his eyes fogged up. Gingerly, he took the scroll from the elderly hands of the Hokage. He clutched the small white scroll to his chest, and cherished the cold feeling of the paper to his skin. "Thank you, Jiji, thank you, thank you so much!" He stammered with so much joy, the day had instantly turned from horrible to the very best day of his life in that moment.

[Line Break]

Naruto shot into his apartment with glee, and hopped into the bed and unfurled his precious scroll from his parents. He devoured each line,he could feel the undying love of his parents, through the care and tenderness of the writing. It read:

 _Dear Naruto, if you're reading this, I guess me and your father aren't here anymore. Even so, just know that we love you. We'd have loved you no matter what. Know that we are proud of whatever kind of man you are or grow up to be. Unfortunately, since we are not here to protect you ourselves, you cannot know our names, trust us, your father and I had many enemies, that would kill to have some sort of petty revenge on us by killing you. Please, don't become like those people, revenge is a horrible path in life, and it always ends in sadness and suffering. Please, Naruto, Don't be picky. Eat lots and grow strong. Make sure that you bathe every day and stay warm. Also.. Don't stay up late. You need lots of sleep. And make friends. You don't need a lot of friends, Just a few. Ones you can really, really trust. I wasn't very good at it, but keep up with your studies and practice your ninjutsu hard. Remember that everyone has strengths and weaknesses. So don't get too depressed if you can't do something well. Respect your teachers and upperclassmen at the Academy. Oh, and this is important. It's about the Three Prohibitions for a shinobi. Be extra careful about lending and borrowing money.._

 _Put your mission wages into your savings account. No alcohol until you're twenty. Too much can ruin your health, so drink in moderation. Another Prohibition is women. I'm a woman, so I don't know too much about this but, all you need to remember is that this world is made up of men and women. So it's only natural to take an interest in girls, But just don't get hooked on bad women. Find someone just like me.. Speaking of the Three Prohibitions, be wary of Jiraiya-Sensei. You know, Naruto, from now on, you're going to face lots of pain and hardship..Be true to yourself. Have a dream and have the confidence to make that dream come true. There's so much, Oh, so much more that I want to pass on to you.. I wish I could have stayed with you longer. I love you._

 _Below are some some techniques from both your father and I, to train you since we aren't here. I hope you study it very hard, and learn at a slow pace. You need to master each step before moving on to the next one, especially the fuuinjutsu. These are very dangerous, start with the basics of each subject, and branch out from there, and don't be scared to ask for help if you need it. Goodbye, Naruto._

 _Your Mother_

 _P.S: At the bottom are a few gifts for you, which we hope you will enjoy._

Naruto was openly crying now, and pushed the scroll away from him to keep it dry. He was happy, so, so, so happy. Finally, people who loved him, loved him no matter what, he had parents. It was only a letter, and a lot of it seemed like nagging to him, but he vowed that he would do every single thing in there, for his mother. He slowly picked up the scroll, and rolled it back up. He set it on the desk by his bed, regretting that he had to even let go of it. That night he curled into sleep, the warmest smile resting on his face.

Naruto woke up late in the morning, he decided not to go to the Academy, it was already late, and didn't feel like being ignored and mocked by his classmates. The scroll sat on his desk, Naruto was relieved that it all hadn't been a dream. He opened the scroll, and tenderly looked at the various seals adorning the paper, each with different titles. From what he gleaned from a class the Academy had on fuuinjutsu, which he was surprisingly good at, all of the seals were blood seals, which required the blood specified by the seal. He assumed that the seal required the blood of his family, so he took one of his few sharpened Kunai and slit his thumb, then smeared it on the seal at the very top of the scroll.

Poof

From the seal, another scroll popped into existence, but this one looked noticeably older, evidenced by the dust caked on the surface. Strangely enough, it had the spiral symbol that was on every Shinobi of Konoha printed at the top. He opened the scroll and read the words written at the top.

"Uzumaki Clan's Special Chakra and How to Use it" Naruto read, with a puzzled look on his face, not only did he find out about his parents, but also that he had a clan! What was this about special chakra though, he wondered. He looked over the scroll curiously, taking in and committing every word to memory. Apparently the Uzumaki had a special affinity to fuuinjutsu, so strong that their chakra acted like a seal when given physical form. Coinciding with that, they also had an uncanny ability for shape manipulation of chakra, which manifested in the form of chains. Together, these two abilities gave the Uzumaki special chains, strengthened by seals to make them as hard as adamantine, sharper than a diamond, and more powerful than most S-Class Ninjutsu. Best yet, when trained, the Uzumaki could use their chains to suck chakra from their opponents and transfer it to their own body. These chains were so powerful they could defeat Biju. Yet, it takes a while to get their chains up to such levels, most Uzumaki only learned to use weaker version of the chains. The scroll gave simple instructions on how to activate the bloodline, which Naruto immediately followed. First, he had to sit completely still and meditate, which was the hardest part for Naruto, he powered through it however, and managed to attain some semblance of mediation, the next step was to envision chains binding, first binding him to the world, next binding him to the people of the world, then to the people most important to him, then the chains binding him to himself, and finally, him to his chakra. He imagined the chains wrapping around the Hidden Leaf, then around all the people in it, the same people who ignored and refused to acknowledge him. The chains then bound to his small group of precious people, namely the Sandaime, and a mental image of who he envisioned his parents were. He imagined the chains wrapping around himself, and anchoring him to the floor of his apartment. Finally, he felt the chains form from his chakra in himself. It felt, warm, not cold like how chains usually were.

Naruto's eyes shot open. He looked at himself to find anything different. Nothing was different, except for the same warm feeling he felt earlier. His gaze shifted to the scroll laid out before him, and read the rest of the instructions to manifest the chains. All he had to do was stick out his hands and… A thin, yellowish-green chain shot from his wrist, narrowly missing the scroll and burrowing into his apartment floor.

He spent the entire day practicing how to make the chains.

[This is a line break]

Naruto arrived at the Academy early. In fact, he was the first one in his class room. With nothing to do, he decided to crack open one of the gifts from his parents, a little book called The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. He actually hadn't read it yet, but it was from his parents and he knew he would like it. It was also written by that Jiraiya-Sensei guy his mom warned him about, but he assumed that this was an exception. He started to read, just as other students filled in, which he didn't even notice as he was consumed by the book.

Two hours later, every student had arrived and class had started. The first few Academic classes were uneventful, which didn't even matter to Naruto as he had his nose buried deep in his book. Iruka then called the class to a special sparring session, every student followed him out the door, except for…

"NARUTO" said boy immediately fumbled the book in his hands and fell from his seat, earning a laugh from the student body. "I just called the entire class to a sparring session, were you even listening during the entire class?"

"W-well, Iruka-sensei, ya see, I-"

"That's enough, just for that you get the first match" Naruto walked to the center of the field where the class usually sparred, and sized up his opponent, one Uchiha Sasuke.

"This is an evaluation of your skills as ninja, the first and only rule is, there are no rules. Do whatever it takes to defeat your opponent, that includes ninjutsu, taijutsu, even genjutsu, Mizuki and I will call the match if anything gets out of hand. The first match today is Uchiha Sasuke vs. Uzumaki Naruto" a wave of cheers came for Sasuke from his fangirls, and sadly no one seemed to notice Naruto.

"Teme, I'm gonna beat you with my new Jutsu! Believe It!" Naruto said.

"As if, Dobe" replied Sasuke.

"BEGIN" called Iruka.

Naruto dashed at Sasuke at full speed, and threw a flurry of punches at him. Sasuke blocked the attack with practiced ease fit for a prodigy, before throwing his own counter attack at Naruto. The blonde ducked under the punch, which narrowly missed his face, and aimed a sweep kick at Sasuke's legs. Sasuke jumped over the outstretched leg, although as soon as Naruto finished his sweep, he used his momentum to spring up and aim a headbutt at Sasuke's chin. Sasuke raised his arms to block, and the headbutt connected to his forearms. Naruto rubbed his head from the headbutt, giving Sasuke a large opening. He prepared a haymaker to finish his opponent. The punch hit Naruto straight on, knocking the boy to the ground. Sasuke turned his back to Naruto, and was about to ask the proctor to call the match, before he felt something wrap around his arms and body.

"Kongo Fusa" Naruto said with a smirk on his face, chains sprouting from his wrists. He had trapped Sasuke in his chains, and barely held his excitement at that fact.

"What the Hell is this, Dobe?!" Sasuke squirmed and struggled against the chains, yet it only seemed to get tighter. No, he couldn't be stuck like this and lose to the Dobe!

"Uzumaki Clan Special Technique: Uzumaki Taihō kikku" Naruto retracted the chains at an incredibly fast rate, catapulting himself at Sasuke feet first. As he got close, he suddenly his extended his legs, and kicked Sasuke hard in the chest. Naruto released the chains as Sasuke tumbled across the ground.

"Winner! Naruto Uzumaki!" Iruka called the match with a surprised look on his face.

"Yatta! Take that Sasuke-teme! Ain't so high and mighty now are ya!" Naruto cheered and jumped up and down at his victory. Suddenly, he felt a massive wave of killer intent, he slowly turned around to see a crowd of young girls glaring at him.

"Naruto! How dare you hurt Sasuke-Kun with a dirty trick like that!" Sakura shouted at him.

"And how dare you claim that you have a clan! I've never even heard of an Uzumaki clan! You probably just made it up to try to sound as cool as Sasuke!" Ino screeched.

"But-but I" Naruto started, he didn't get a chance though as he was chased by the horde of fangirls.

Meanwhile, Sasuke rubbed his bruised ribs, and winced at the pain. The Dobe, had beaten him, the top of the class, the elite Uchiha beaten by the dead last. He would have written it off as a fluke, but… Maybe there was more to the Dobe than he thought.


	2. Graduation Day!

**A/N: Hi everyone, just a heads up, I didn't have anyone available to beta this chapter so be warned if there is some phrasing issues.**

 **I do not own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.**

'This Jutsu is awesome!' A horde of solid Naruto clones thought simultaneously as they crowded an empty training ground.

A Naruto in the center of the horde dispelled the clones in a poof of smoke that dispersed in the wind. He slumped to the ground in an undignified manner, and breathed heavily as he stared at the clouds. The three years that had passed since the Hokage had given him that scroll had been rough. He usually spent most of his time studying the techniques found in the scroll and training rather than going to the Academy. He usually only went when there was an important test or a lesson on fuuinjutsu, which he found surprisingly easier than the other students.

The years had matured Naruto quite well. He had well defined muscles developed over years of training replacing the bony structure of his nine year old self. Of course, all of this was hidden under his worn and torn orange tracksuit.

'I'm so ready for tomorrow!' Tomorrow was the day of the Genin Exam, this time he was going to graduate and blow everyone out of the water! The only complication was the Bunshin Jutsu, the bane of his existence. Luckily, his parents had prepared for that, And included a special version of the Bunshin, the Kage Bunshin, in the scroll. In Naruto's opinion it was way more useful than the regular Bunshin, these clones were actually solid! Of course, the Jutsu did have some dangers that went along with it. The scroll said that the only reason why he could utilize this Jutsu so well was because of the Uzumaki's massive chakra reserves. It was also the reason why he couldn't do the normal Bunshin, as they required very little chakra and good chakra control, which was incredibly hard for most Uzumaki. Which was why a lot of techniques he learned from the scroll cost an exuberant amount of chakra, and very little chakra control.

Naruto shot up to his feet and stretched, the day was getting late and he still had some errands to do. He smiled brightly as tomorrow he was going to blow everyone out of the water.

[GIGA LINE BREAKK!]

"Uchiha Sasuke?" Iruka was calling attendance as he stared at his class. He had a heartwarming smile on his face as he stared that his class. Today was the Graduation Exam, and while most of his class would come back, he would still miss those who actually went on to become Genin. Still, he was worried about the next student on his attendance list, he had barely come to class, and was worried about him dropping out of the Ninja program. Although knowing Naruto…

"Uzumaki Naruto?" Iruka called, expecting no answer like usual, still, he lingered on the name, and called it out again. "Uzumaki Nar-"

"I'm here, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto said as he burst through the window near the back of the class, dubbed the 'Ninja Door' by most Shinobi. Naruto took his seat by the brooding Sasuke Uchiha.

"Teme" Naruto greeted quietly while Iruka carried on with the attendance.

"Dobe" Sasuke replied.

A quiet second passed between the two as they glared at eachother, and one could almost see the lightning shoot between their eyes.

"Hn," Sasuke stuck out a fist at Naruto, who gladly knocked it with his own fist. The two boys smirked, as they had developed a sort of begrudging friendship/rivalry since Naruto bested Sasuke in that spar three years ago. Although Naruto would never say it outloud, the fact that he won was mostly luck. Naruto always asked Sasuke for advice on his techniques, and Sasuke always needed someone to practice with. They also found out that they both worked well together, as Naruto discovered he had a wind-affinity and Sasuke had plenty of fire-jutsu that could be boosted with Naruto's wind techniques.

[Line Break No Jutsu]

Naruto's brain felt like mush, the written portion of the exam was tough for him, extremely tough. Yet, he was pretty sure he passed… Barely.

But next was the practicals, starting with the Kunai and shuriken throws, which Naruto scored moderately on. And finally, the ninjutsu portion.

"Alright, now we're moving on to the Ninjutsu section of the Exam, in this you'll have to perform the Bunshin," Naruto cringed at that, although he was still prepared. "Henge, and Kawarimi jutsus. First, Aburame Shino"

The exam seemed to move on in a crawl, but finally it was Naruto's turn.

"Alright, Naruto,you know the drill, perform the henge"

Naruto resisted the urge to test out his anti-pervert jutsu on Iruka and Mizuki, but decided to instead transform into a perfect version of the Hokage.

"Perfect with the Henge, Naruto" Iruka said proudly, the henge was always his best jutsu. "Now, perform the Kawarimi and switch places with that chair in the corner."

Naruto did as instructed, and switched places with the chair, before switching back and smiling proudly at Iruka.

"Alright, Naruto, I know you've had trouble with this, but you need to do it to pass, perform the Bunshi-" before Iruka could finish, Naruto cut him off.

"I got one better for you, Iruka-sensei! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto cried as he surged chakra in the air, before twenty something clones of Naruto popped into existence. Naruto showing no signs of chakra exhaustion. "If you're impressed by that, then you have no idea how many I can actually make!"

"N-Naruto, where did you learn that Jutsu! It's forbidden and very dangerous!" Iruka said, concern leaking from his voice at the safety of his student. The Hokage would have to know about this.

"Doesn't matter where I learned it, Iruka-sensei, all that matters is I performed the jutsu, right?" Naruto said excitedly, wondering if he actually passed.

"I-I mean" Iruka looked down at his student's expectant young eyes, he knew that his student must have worked hard to master a high ranked Jutsu, and he performed the other two jutsu masterfully, and when he did show up for class he was always paying attention, "Fine, that Jutsu is acceptable, you pas-"

"Yatta!" Naruto jumped for joy in front of the class, and excitedly took his hitai-ate. He ran out of the classroom, unaware of his senseis calling after him. It didn't matter to him, he had some errands to run.

[I Am the Hope of the Universe, I Am A Super Line Break]

Naruto adjusted the hitai-ate he had tied around his neck as stared at his new outfit in the mirror. He had still had his signature goggles tied around his head, but had replaced his kill-me-orange tracksuit with a jet black polyester training shirt and pants, kill-me-orange lines running up the sides and arms. The lines ran to the back, and formed an orange version of the swirl adorning the vests of Konoha Chuunin and Jonin. Attached to his waist were various combat-ready fuuinjutsu scrolls. He was ready, and finally a ninja!

Naruto looked at the precious scroll from his parents, "Goodbye, Kaa-San, Tou-San, today's the day for team assignments! I'm one step closer to becoming Hokage!"

Naruto arrived at the Academy to see only two other people in his classroom, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. Suddenly he felt a wave of killing intent coming from the pink-haired girl. He barely gulped before she exploded at him.

"NARUTO! You're Late! I can't believe we got you as a teammate! You're lucky our sensei isn't here or else we could get in trouble." Sakura shouted, greatly irritated by both the lateness of her teammate and sensei.

"Heh, heh, sorry Sakura-chan, who is our sensei anyway?" Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, he must have overslept after a night of studying his scroll. He took a seat across from Sasuke after earning a fist bump from said boy.

"Some guy named Kakashi Hatake" Sakura said as she slumped her head to her desk.

[summoning jutsu: Line Break]

Naruto grit his teeth as he reached for a storage scroll, and released a small leather book from that was stored within. The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi was well worn and well read, he had read the book a countless number of times, but always came back to it. He loved the message from the book, and didn't understand why there was only one in the series. The best part of the book was that the main character's name was Naruto!

Still, Naruto was irked at how late his sensei was, it had been two hours since he had arrived, and still this Kakashi guy hadn't come.

Clak

The sliding door to the classroom opened and in walked a masked man with gravity defying white hair and the usual Jonin attire. In his hand was a small little orange book, with a man chasing an almost naked women on the cover.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto and Sakura cried out, pointing an accusing finger at their sensei, while Sasuke gave a grunt of annoyance.

Kakashi sighed at the immaturity of his students, and his eyes shifted back to his precious Icha-icha.

"Meet me on the roof in 5" he lazily said before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Five minutes later, the assembled Genin stared at their designated sensei. They were all mildly peeved at his lateness, however, Naruto was more interested in the book the scarecrow of a man was reading.

"Let's start with Introductions, your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams." Kakashi crouched as he stared back at his "cute little Genin". Oh how he would break them.

"Um, how about you start Kakashi-sensei" Sakura said nervously.

"Alright, my name is Kakashi Hatake, I like and dislike a lot of things, and hobbies…. Hm, I have no interest in telling you my dreams"

'All we learned was his name' were the thoughts running through the head of the collected Team 7.

"Alright, Shorty, you first" Kakashi said indicating Naruto.

"Hah! I wonder which one of you he was talkin-HEY!" Naruto shouted as he suddenly realized who was dubbed 'shorty' "Anyway, I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I like ramen, especially Ichiraku Ramen that Iruka-sensei and Hokage-jiji treat me to, and learning new jutsu and fuuinjutsu! I don't like the three minutes it takes for cup ramen to cool down, being ignored, and being called short" Naruto said that last part with a hint of venom, mixed in with a dash of pathetic (at least for Kakashi) killing intent. "My dream for the future is to become the Hokage who surpasses all Hokage and write the sequel to my favorite book!"

"Alright, good introduction, shorty," Naruto angrily grit his teeth at the passing remark, while contemplating the merits of attacking his sensei right then and there. "Pinky, you're next."

"Oh, right, I'm Haruno Sakura, and what I like is.. I mean who I like is" Sakura darted a glance at Sasuke, who pretended to not notice, "My hobbies are," Sakura giggled as she darted another glance at Sasuke, Naruto cringed in sympathy at his friend thank god he didn't have any stalkers.

Somewhere in the Hyuuga compound, Hyuuga Hinata sneezed.

"My dreams for the future are" Again, another glance at Sasuke, Kakashi was going to have fun exploiting this during the Bell-Test. "What I hate is idiots like Naruto!" To her far right Naruto faked getting shot by an arrow in the chest, and fell back to the concrete before bursting into a wide grin.

Kakashi sighed, one thing that usually killed most Genin teams was the dreaded fangirl, more obsessed with how they appeared than how well they fight, he'll iron it out eventually, if he passes them. "Mopey, you're turn."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I don't like many things, and dislike a lot of things, I have no hobbies, and my dream...no, my ambition, is to kill a certain man." Sasuke said darkly, while Naruto next to him mouth Sasuke's words in a comical manner.

"Good, now that's over," Kakashi stood up from his crouching position on the balcony of the roof, "meet me at the third training ground for a survival exercise, oh, and I suggest you don't eat anything," Kakashi sent out a minor wave of killing intent, just to emphasize his next point, "you might throw up"

Naruto suddenly had a bad feeling about his new sensei.


End file.
